Menu image/svg+xml

Opportunities and limitations of a ‚3-D economy‘ (How) Can the digital economy be decentralized and democratic?

Digital technologies can make regional or local production more attractive and also more cost-effective through unrestricted access to information and markets. At the same time, digital technologies enable new ways of communication that allow for more participation, more open markets and a meeting of market participants 'at eye level'.

In this paper, the authors illuminate the opportunities and limits of digitization for a decentralization and democratization of the economy, illustrate existing potentials on the basis of numerous case studies and show their contribution to ecological sustainability. However, they also analyze the fact that in reality these potentials are countered by a historically unprecedented concentration of market power in the hands of a few IT corporations. In addition to the opportunities, they therefore also show in this article the mechanisms by which the digitalization of the economy can run contrary to decentralization and democratization.

Finally, they present four perspectives and instruments on how a '3-D economy' - digital, democratic, decentralized - can be supported politically. These include the re-regionalization of the economy, the introduction of a passivity requirement and selective advertising ban, the reform of monopoly law, and the strengthening of platform cooperatives.

Download (PDF, in German)